The Slice from PBS North So I am Rachel Doherty with Mesabi Schools.

I am their farm to school coordinator and Mesabi East Environmental Education Center manager.

We realized our students needed to have access to local foods and really let them learn how to grow their own produce.

So in 2018, that was the first year that we started to work with our local farmers, for our farm to school.

And in that Jack and Ericka La M were our first farmers.

Then was Early Frost to sign up.

We become on board to offer their local produce into our cafeteria.

We can only grow so much just between the two of us, and we're pretty much at max capacity.

And still people want more food.

So we need more people growing food.

And I think we're seeing a increase in people who are planting a larger gardens in their backyard.

They're doing more canning.

And there's, there's a market for their extra produce.

And so you don't have to be a full time gardener to be able to produce a ton of food.

You can have a full time job.

We both worked for 40 hours a week, and still we produce a ton of food for the farmers market for this grocery stores and for the schools.

The Slice from PBS Nroth Presented by The Teberg Fund